Maestro and the ducks, The

OPERA WASN'T PUCCINI'S ONLY PASSION

Have you ever heard the music from La Boheme or Madame Butterfly and figured the composer was probably some cultivated, artistic type who never strayed far from the capital cities of Europe?

Not so. Those operas were written by a crusty old Italian duck hunter named Giacomo Puccini.

Puccini had his fill of city life by the time he graduated from the Milan Conservatory in the 1880s. He settled in Torre del Lago, a tiny village on the shore of Lake Massaciuccoli in western Tuscany, and there spent his years composing operas and shooting ducks. The maestro also had a reputation as a poacher and philanderer, and was adept at dodging angry game wardens and still angrier husbands.

Puccini died in 1924 and is buried in his lakeside villa. The house is open as a museum and includes his gunroom, complete with shotguns, hunting gear, and trophies.

The next time you hear some of that music, listen a little closer It came from a man who loved waterfowling as much as you. -Thomas Brennan

Copyright Sports Afield, Inc. Apr 2002
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